BY CHAMBERLAIN ODEY, JOS – Plateau State Governor, Simon Bako Lalong believes policy economic rebirth, policies articulation and consolidation of public infrastructure will strengthen the State government’s hands to manage emerging challenges in the post COVID-19 era.
The governor radiated this confidence when submitting his administration’s 2021 fiscal proposals to the Plateau State House of Assembly (PSHA) on Wednesday, November 11, 2020.
The Appropriation document, tagged budget of “Economic Recovery, Inclusive Growth and Infrastructural Consolidation”, shows an overall estimate of N133,482, 705,457.00
But Governor Lalong made no pretence telling the Lawmakers that the Budget is a modest projection given the prevailing circumstances and economic vagaries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the budget also derived premise and locale from macro-economic adjuncts such as oil price which was pegged at 40 dollars per barrel, national oil production quota of 1.86 million barrels per day (bpd), exchange rate of the naira at 378 to a dollar, a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annual change rate of N3.00, all things being equal with the inflation rate at 11.95 per cent.
Providing further insights into the Appropriation statement, the Governor indicated that N83, 947, 204,173.00 of the budget sum is dedicated to recurrent expenditure for the fiscal period while the capital expenditure for the same period is put at N49,535,501, 284.00.
However, the entire budget reveals about N10,633,882,544.00, representing 8.6 per cent over the 2020 revised budget of N122.8 billion.
Governor Lalong also informed the Assembly members that the Budget’s overall objective is to better the lives of Plateau people through policies implementation and execution of projects that will impact positively on the welfare of the people.
